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First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari
• The ratio of only 2.4 million taxpayers to a population of over 30 million is not sustainable
• This is according to the first vice-governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari
• He therefore called for a much more simplified way of declaring taxes to increase the net tax.
Dr Maxwell Opoku Afari, first vice-governor of the central bank, stressed that it was not sustainable for only 2.4 million taxpayers to bear the tax burden of an entire population of over 30 million.
According to him, if the trend continues, Ghana may not meet its development goals with the low number of taxpayers currently.
Speaking at a public conference hosted by the Business School of the University of Ghana, Dr Afari called for a much more streamlined method of filing income tax returns to broaden the tax base.
“It’s amazing to believe that in a country of over 30 million and with over 16 million active MoMo users (an indication of economically active people), there are only 2.4 million individual taxpayers. . Does this really show that we have the capacity to deliver? It will not be possible to meet our development needs with such a tax base, especially when love is gone and donor aid is gone. dried up ”, underlined the vice-governor of the BoG.
“To broaden the tax base, we will need to get more people to honor their tax obligations and minimize tax exemptions. Incentives to support businesses for tax compliance should be introduced to instill discipline in all taxpayers to meet their tax obligations, ”Dr Afari stressed.
He said, however, that the recently introduced Revenue Assurance and Compliance Enforcement (RACE) initiative, if properly implemented and enforced, will improve domestic revenue mobilization and anchor the necessary social contract between government and citizens.
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